{"id":436965,"date":"2025-09-28T21:32:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=436965"},"modified":"2025-09-28T21:32:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:32:48","slug":"viktor-hovlands-absence-triggers-envelope-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/viktor-hovlands-absence-triggers-envelope-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Viktor Hovland’s Absence Triggers Envelope Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday morning, Viktor Hovland began experiencing stiffness in his neck.\u00a0 Throughout the day, it progressed into a pain that made every movement difficult for the Norwegian golfer.\u00a0 It got to the point that he had to withdraw for the rest of the day<\/a>.\u00a0 He went to get some rest and medical attention.\u00a0 He went to a local hospital to get a scan done on Saturday night.\u00a0 On Sunday morning, he couldn\u2019t move his head at all.\u00a0 Now Hovland is unable to play, and a little-known rule in the Ryder Cup has been triggered for the first time in decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hovland\u2019s Injury<\/span><\/h2>\n

The injury Viktor Hovland is currently dealing with is a lingering one.\u00a0 He first got it during the Travelers Championship back in June<\/a>.\u00a0 He has since dealt with the pain on and off.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until now that things got serious enough for him to step away again.\u00a0 During Hovland\u2019s MRI scan, it was revealed that the pain and limited movement are due to a bulging disk.\u00a0 Despite all this, he still tried to warm up at the course.\u00a0 The pain and limited movement forced him to throw in the towel before the singles began.\u00a0 Viktor Hovland said in a statement on the matter:<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“There is nothing more I would like to do than be out there representing Team Europe<\/a> and trying to help them win the Ryder Cup today,” Hovland said. “Not being able to do so is pretty heartbreaking. I will be backing my team as hard as I can and rooting them on.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Withdrawing from the biggest tournament was the last thing Hovland wanted to do.\u00a0 However ,when he realized that he couldn\u2019t play to the best of his ability, he was left no choice.\u00a0 This does mean that the Ryder Cup has to implement the envelope rule, something that Kegan Bradley was dreading.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kegan Bradley Opens The Envelope<\/span><\/h2>\n

The envelope rule is unique to the Ryder Cup and is only used when a player has to withdraw from the singles for whatever reason.\u00a0 What happens is that each team captain writes the name of a player who has to sit out for a matchup with the player who had to leave.\u00a0 That match is then worth a half point, all in an effort to keep things fair in Hovland\u2019s absence.\u00a0 For Team USA, the player in question was Harris English, who can only sit on the sidelines and cheer his team on.\u00a0 The US team captain, Kagan Bradley, spoke about the rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough. It’s a strange rule, but we’ve got to go with what the rules say.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When talking about English\u2019s reaction to the letter, Bradley says that he, \u201ctook it so well, I\u2019m really proud of him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hovland Accidentally Made Ryder Cup History<\/span><\/h2>\n

When Viktor Hovland came onto the course with a bulging disk, he accidentally set the course to become part of the Ryder Cup\u2019s history.\u00a0 The envelope rule is something that was first implemented in 1979 for its first use.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t triggered until 1991 and again in 1993, thirty-two years ago.\u00a0 This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event, and the captains dread ever having to open that envelope and would rather take that knowledge to the grave.\u00a0 However, today Viktor Hovland has put his name in Ryder Cup history, but in a way that he would have rather not happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Brendan Mcdermid-Reuters via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday morning, Viktor Hovland began experiencing stiffness in his neck.\u00a0 Throughout the day, it progressed into a pain that made every movement difficult for the Norwegian golfer.\u00a0 It got to the point that he had to withdraw for the rest of the day.\u00a0 He went to get some rest and medical attention.\u00a0 He went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":436966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,46],"tags":[234,77],"class_list":["post-436965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-sports-history","tag-ryder-cup","tag-viktor-hovland"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436967,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436965\/revisions\/436967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}